Interview by Giovanna Zavell

We sat down with singer songwriter, Nella Thomas, about her new project, The June Bugs. This Des Moines based, all female cover band took to the stage for the first time this summer. Their calendar has been full of shows at places like Captain Roy’s, The Botanical Garden and Valley Junction.

At the end of this month, check out the The June Bugs at their biggest show as a band yet:  Ingersoll LIVE. “We are so excited to perform at Ingersoll LIVE,” Nella says. “Getting in front of a new crowd will be a huge opportunity for us to reach out to more people in the community. A community I am near and dear to. It will be fun to play for everyone and share the stages with lots of other great artists in Des Moines.

Giovanna: Tell us about you! How did you find yourself in the music world?

Nella: I am a singer songwriter, elementary music teacher and lover of all things music. I grew up in Southeast Iowa where my elementary school music teacher was my aunt, so I hung out in the music room all the time. She was also in charge of our community theater. Me and all my cousins did community theater as kids. I continued music through high school and then went to Simpson College and studied opera there. I’ve had so many different experiences and genres of music, which has been really fun. When I graduated from Simpson, that’s when I started songwriting on my own. I released my first album in 2015, called “Yonder Woods,” and have been in the music scene ever since.

Giovanna: What is it like pursuing a solo career and what does recording an album entail?

Nella: I have been really fortunate to be connected to a lot of musical people since moving to Des Moines. After graduating from Simpson, I was so inspired by my friends who are songwriters, and was always amazed at how they did it. I told myself that if I just did it, I could do it too. And when I did try, songwriting came very naturally to me. I recorded my first album at Midday Studios with Logan Christian. That was such a fun experience, especially since it was the first time recording music and not knowing what to expect at all. I was able to bring in musicians I knew to record, and Logan brought in musicians he knew too for different parts.

Now, I have been messing around with the way I release music after watching the way the public digests music—seeing how Spotify and other streaming services play into how people listen to music. Instead of releasing a whole album, I am releasing more singles. It seems people are more willing to listen to one song rather than an entire album at one time. So, I have released a bunch of singles since then and the goal is to put all of those on vinyl in the next few months. I also met my husband, William J Locker, through all of this. He is a singer, songwriter and musician, so we have a very musical house. We are constantly inspiring each other.

Left to right: Rachel Hymes, Nella Thomas, April Ziskovsky, and Halen Becker

Giovanna: Switching from your solo career, how did you come to form The June Bugs?

Nella: It was a long time coming. I’ve been really lucky to have a lot of wonderful male musicians in my life who have uplifted me and shown me the ways of the music industry. But, with that in mind, women are grossly underrepresented in the music industry. Not just from songwriting, but production and engineering. The numbers are just shocking. So, the band came from a place with that in mind.  I decided we need some women out in the community playing at these same venues and festivals that all these boy bands are playing. It started with let’s just get a band that is all women. That’s not something you see often in Iowa. So just seeing a bunch of women on stage is powerful. From there, we thought to take it one step further and only highlight music that was written by or performed by women. So we all thought ‘yeah, let’s do that.’

I had two friends from my original band that were fully on board. Then we were on the hunt for a female drummer, which was very hard to find. There are not a lot of female drummers out there. We found Halen Baker, she’s our drummer. We talked pre-COVID and were ready to make this happen. Then the pandemic hit and we had to wait. Then this summer, 2022, we have had a ton of shows. We knew there was a market for this, and it has been very exciting to see we were right about that.

Giovanna: So, who’s all in the band?

Nella: Myself, Nella Thomas, on vocals and acoustic guitar. April Ziskovsky, who is also on vocals. Rachel Hymes plays the upright bass and Halen Becker is on drums. Jodi Roberts plays drums for us when Halen is not able to. The other part of this project was we wanted The June Bugs to fund other, original, projects. So each member of the band is also involved in original projects. April sings with her husband, Adam Bruce, who is a singer songwriter here in Des Moines. Rachel plays in my original band and projects. Halen has a new, original, band called “Daizey” that is just getting started and has a new EP out. And Jodi is the board president of Girls Rock!

Giovanna: How would you describe the dynamics of the band?

Nella: Tone wise, we are folksy. As people, we are exuberant. Everyone is excited about what we are doing and the response we are getting. During practices, there is a lot of laughter and smiles. All the musicians in The June Bugs are just so talented so our practices are very easy. We can go right through everything and it goes quickly. Practices don’t take a lot of work, which is a good thing. Everybody is very good at what they do and because of that we don’t have to have very many practices anymore, believe it or not.

Left to right: April Ziskovsky, Nella Thomas, Halen Becker, Rachel Hymes

Giovanna: What is the inspiration behind the band name?

Nella: I toyed around with a couple different names. My thought process behind The June Bugs was women are typically thought to not like bugs. So the name was sort of to reclaim that. And lastly, where I stumbled into the name is a nod to June Carter. One of the songs we play, ‘emmylou’ by First Aid Kit, they sing about Johnny and June and their love story.

Giovanna: What are some of your favorite songs to perform?

Nella: Let me pull up my set list, this is too hard of a question. I have my favorites, but it has been fun seeing what resonates with the crowd. But my favorite songs are Dolly Parton’s ‘9-5,’ that one is quite fun to perform. We do some Elle King, ‘Ex’s & Oh’s’ and “America’s Sweetheart. Alicia Keys, we do ‘Girl on Fire.’ Then there are the classics—’You’re So Vain’ and ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’ The one that we have seen resonate the most with the crowd is ‘Landslide’ by Fleetwood Mac, but we do The Chicks version. We also have some songs on our setlist a lot of people have not heard of, which is part of our mission to—to expose the crowd to new bands and artists.

Giovanna: What do you want the community to know about The June Bugs?

Nella: “There are people out there who think, without malicious intent, that just because we are showcasing women and highlighting women, and can be considered a feminist group, that that means we are an anti-men. And it doesn’t. It very much doesn’t. Like I said earlier, all of us work with men, other male musicians in the industry and have been so fortunate to learn from them and play with them. This is supposed to be a celebration for women, and nothing against the men in the industry.

Left to right: April Ziskovsky, Nella Thomas, Halen Becker, Rachel Hymes

Don’t miss The June Bugs at their upcoming show at Ingersoll LIVE on August 27!

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